The Front Runner (2019) - Movie Review

2019 is an election year here in Australia. Knowing the intense makeover that has taken place over the last couple of years in regards to political discourse, largely due to what can charitably be called an unexpected result in the U.S. 2016 election, it seems that the public are more aware than ever of the chicanery that goes down on the party front lines. As such, features like this which delve into the political past are typically done as a means of making some sense of what is happening in the now. The Post managed it, Vice ultimately didn't, and today’s outing? Well, it does technically speak to the current political climate... in the worst way possible.

For one, the depiction we get of disgraced presidential candidate Gary Hart leaves much to be desired. Aside from being saddled with Hugh Jackman attempting an American accent, something that he has never been able to maintain for the course of an entire feature, the portrayal we get of the senator is embarrassingly plain. ‘I don’t want to get involved in gossip’ is the character’s one and only tone throughout, and while it potentially allows for some hubristic analysis of why everything went as pear-shaped as it did, it unfortunately results in a feat of self-sabotage. In a story that, at times, makes the point that policy should be more important than the personal, the direction never seems to follow suit.

Which leads us to another big problem: The attempts to placate every individual perspective on the story and what, if any of it, is worth focusing on. Now, to Jason Reitman’s credit, he has enough sense to look at the issue from those different perspectives, ranging from genuine belief that a man’s personal life isn’t anyone else’s business to scepticism about what a politician’s personal dealings have to say about their efficacy as an elected official. However, it goes for a surface-level scraping of those viewpoints rather than any sort of deep cut to unearth any worthy truths.

Now, on the lightly-scraped surface, there is definitely some rationality behind this approach. On one hand, matters of infidelity can be tough to work through when it’s just the two spouses involved, let alone the media circus breathing down their necks at the same time. But on the other, as political news both before and after Gary Hart have gone to show, there is a reason that the media keeps a close eye on elected officials. Someone needs to keep the bastards honest, and at a time when certain heads of state are trying to de-legitimise journalist media, this film’s depiction of mainstream media feels incredibly tone-deaf. Even considering the allowances made for the irksome ‘both sides’ argument.

Not that bipartisanship ends up winning out anyway. By film’s end, the only concrete judgement made is towards the media, primarily for the harassment they caused not only Hart himself but his family and his mistress (in an incredibly misguided turn by Sara Paxton). No real statements are made against Hart’s wandering eye or his steadfast insistence on lying about it or even how his own attitude cost him the candidacy and wound up putting those around him in a rough position to begin with.

As much as tabloid journalism has caused some serious problems (U.K. tabloids still haven’t learnt their lesson about hounding the royal family, even after everything that has taken place), cutting this wide a swathe against mainstream media at large… it’s not helping. It’s only furthering the conversation of those who want to selectively edit dissent out of it, and when your film is stuck between apathy and actively assisting the enemy, you done fucked up. The only thing that gives this film reason for mercy is that, knowing Jason Reitman’s next film will be another addition to the Ghostbusters franchise, he will most likely be in the middle of his own little media circus regardless of how it turns out. With any luck, he’ll treat the shitstorm that inevitably awaits him with more salience than he did here.